]]>http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/gore-family-friend-calls-affair-report-horse-manure/feed/3The ultimate Linked In profile: U.S. Presidenthttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/the-ultimate-linkedin-profile-u-s-president/
http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/the-ultimate-linkedin-profile-u-s-president/#commentsFri, 28 May 2010 16:59:39 +0000Ryan Underwoodhttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/?p=10607“President at United States of America” … not a bad listing on one’s Linked In profile. Here’s Barack Obama’s (Jennifer 8. Lee points out his industry vertical is “government administration”:

The House sponsor of a resolution that sought to ban an Associated Press reporter from the chamber withdrew the measure Monday night.

Democratic Rep. Joe Towns of Memphis said he decided to pull the resolution after talking with House leaders.

The sergeant at arms and a state trooper ordered Erik Schelzig to leave the House floor last week after he began taking photos of a collapsed House Speaker Kent Williams, who had fainted as a result of low blood sugar. The Elizabethton independent got up minutes later and resumed presiding over the session about an hour later.
He said he didn’t eat breakfast and his blood sugar was low. He was back to work this week.

But video footage from a local television station showed Schelzig was actually behind a glass barrier where reporters are required to w ork.

He has been supported by news organizations and open government advocates – all of whom said he was doing his job.

Laura Leslie, president of Capitolbeat, a national association of statehouse reporters and editors, wrote a letter to the speaker. She said if Schelzig was obstructing medical assistance, the sergeant at arms should have told him to move. But the video and the angle of Schelzig’s photo suggest that wasn’t the case, she said.

“It would set a very poor precedent if your chamber were to give this measure any consideration, let alone pass it,” she wrote. “No reporter should ever be threatened with the loss of credentials for reporting a story that those in power don’t like. That may be the norm in dictatorships, but a functional democracy requires zealous reporting about public officials within the limits of the law.”

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government agreed Schelzig “did no harm” and that his action “violated no rules of the H ouse of Representatives, including those that govern decorum.”

“Passage of this resolution would be inappropriate and unwarranted,” the group said in a statement. “It would send a chilling signal to the citizens of this state and jeopardize future coverage and the very freedoms citizens put in their constitution.”

“As a member of Congress, Zach Wamp has always been counted on to protect Social Security and Medicare,” Boone said. “As Governor, Zach Wamp will continue to be a tax cutter, protecting the pocketbooks of senior citizens. 60 Plus calls on nearly 5.5 million seniors nationally for support, including nearly 65,000 seniors in the Volunteer State, so I believe I can speak on behalf of seniors when I say that they can count on Zach Wamp. Clearly, seniors have no finer friend than Zach Wamp.”

Meanwhile, Wamp releases a series of new TV ads targeted to different parts of the state. Watch after the jump

]]>http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/anderson-cooper-live-from-bellevue/feed/0It’s not officially a disaster until there’s a T-shirthttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/its-not-officially-a-disaster-until-theres-a-t-shirt/
http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/its-not-officially-a-disaster-until-theres-a-t-shirt/#commentsFri, 07 May 2010 01:28:19 +0000Ryan Underwoodhttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/?p=10448Okay, I’m just ripping this blog post off wholesale from Jim Ridley at the Nashville Scene’s Pith in the Wind:

Nashville artists and designers have stepped up to offer assistance in the form of

]]>http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/keith-olbermann-tells-viewers-not-to-forget-nashville/feed/0FoxNews going strong, but Glenn Beck’s ratings plummethttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/foxnews-going-strong-but-glenn-becks-ratings-plummet/
http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/foxnews-going-strong-but-glenn-becks-ratings-plummet/#commentsThu, 29 Apr 2010 23:05:15 +0000Ryan Underwoodhttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/?p=10375Keeping up with the latest TV ideologues — from Rachel Maddow to Glenn Beck — is nearly as tough as tracking who’s hot (or not) in Hollywood. But perhaps nobody could have predicted Glenn Beck’s 30 percent decline in viewers since the start of the year, as the Los Angeles Times reports.

Here’s the one guess I would hazard: Beck may have seen a big surge in viewers as health care reform went full-tilt, and he’s just now floating back to his normal viewership levels. In any event, he still attracts 2.1 million viewers. (That compares to about 670,000 for Larry King on CNN).

Beck’s decline doesn’t seem to be making a dent in FoxNews’ stellar ratings. The network has now come in first in vieweship and key demographis for 100 months straight.

]]>http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/tweeting-early-and-often-dean-delivers-state-of-metro-speech-and-senate-votes-on-guns-in-bars/feed/0Serpas among six finalists for New Orleans jobhttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/serpas-among-six-finalists-for-new-orleans-job/
http://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/2010/serpas-among-six-finalists-for-new-orleans-job/#commentsTue, 27 Apr 2010 14:48:07 +0000Ryan Underwoodhttp://blogs.tennessean.com/politics/?p=10315The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that Metro Police Chief Ronal Serpas is one of six finalists being considered for the top police job there. Serpas confirmed yesterday that he was interviewing for the position. Here’s the list of candidates:

The candidates with ties to the department are former NOPD Assistant Superintendent Ronal Serpas and former Capt. Louis Dabdoub. The four others are John M. Harrington, chief of police in St. Paul, Minn.; Bruce Preston Marquis, chief of police in Norfolk, Va.; John R. Batiste, chief of the Washington State Patrol and a Hammond native; and Ronald Davis, police chief of East Palo Alto, Calif., the sources said.